Clinton vows to work hard to get Obama elected

Her long campaign to be first female president reaches its end

US Democratic presidential candidate Senator Hillary Clinton (D-NY) acknowledges the crowd as she arrives at the National Building Museum in Washington June 7, 2008, where she will formally drop out of the contest and throw her support behind her rival of the last 16 months, presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Senator Barack Obama (D-IL). REUTERS/Joshua Roberts (UNITED STATES) US PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION CAMPAIGN 2008 (USA) less

US Democratic presidential candidate Senator Hillary Clinton (D-NY) acknowledges the crowd as she arrives at the National Building Museum in Washington June 7, 2008, where she will formally drop out of the ... more

Photo: JOSHUA ROBERTS, REUTERS

Photo: JOSHUA ROBERTS, REUTERS

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US Democratic presidential candidate Senator Hillary Clinton (D-NY) acknowledges the crowd as she arrives at the National Building Museum in Washington June 7, 2008, where she will formally drop out of the contest and throw her support behind her rival of the last 16 months, presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Senator Barack Obama (D-IL). REUTERS/Joshua Roberts (UNITED STATES) US PRESIDENTIAL ELECTION CAMPAIGN 2008 (USA) less

US Democratic presidential candidate Senator Hillary Clinton (D-NY) acknowledges the crowd as she arrives at the National Building Museum in Washington June 7, 2008, where she will formally drop out of the ... more

Photo: JOSHUA ROBERTS, REUTERS

Clinton vows to work hard to get Obama elected

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Marking the end of her historic presidential candidacy Saturday, Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton urged her teary, angry, disappointed but finally cheering supporters to unite behind rival Sen. Barack Obama, for whom she gave a full-throated promise to "work my heart out" to win the White House in November for Democrats.

"We cannot let this moment slip away," Clinton told her supporters, standing before the giant columns of the National Building Museum in Washington. "I am standing with Sen. Obama to say, 'Yes, we can.' "

Clinton suspended her campaign, ending a marathon 17-month fight that winnowed the Democratic nomination to a near tie between two candidates who shattered race and gender ceilings, and leaving bitterness and recriminations on both sides.

Clinton made every effort to demonstrate the magnanimity in defeat that her defiant speech at the end of the primaries Tuesday lacked. Clinton's refusal to concede that night muddied what Obama supporters wanted to be his moment of glory. Four days later on a sweltering summer day, her Pyrrhic South Dakota victory behind her, Clinton worked to remedy that, repeating the refrain, "We must work hard to help elect Barack Obama president," eliciting a few scattered boos from her most ardent supporters that were drowned out by cheers.

Democrats now have five months to heal their party and win an election that at least on paper is theirs to lose.

Clinton gave thanks to her disappointed supporters, especially women, many of whom felt their candidate was diminished by a subtle sexism in the press and a party that diminished her candidacy, mocking her pantsuits and downplaying her achievements.

"I've already been crying quite a bit and so has my daughter," said Roberta Beary, 54, a Washington, D.C., lawyer who said she has worked for women's rights since the 1970s. "I really thought if a woman were going to have a shot at the presidency, this was it.

"I just think the country isn't ready. That's what happened. I think Hillary had to work harder and longer and do more than all the other candidates combined. That's been the way it is for women."

After downplaying her gender at the start of her bid in favor of touting a theme of experience, partly out of concern that voters would not want a woman as commander in chief, Clinton finally embraced it. Lacing her speech with references to the women's rights movement, Clinton said, "Although we weren't able to shatter that highest, hardest glass ceiling this time, thanks to you it has about 18 million cracks in it and the light is shining through as never before."

To the question of whether a woman "could really serve as commander in chief, well I think we answered that one," Clinton said. "Could an African American really be our president? Sen. Obama answered that one."

Leaving a campaign $30 million in debt, including at least $20 million in personal loans, Clinton plans to take a few days to rest and ponder her future. That ranges from returning to the Senate to possibly being picked as Obama's running mate.

Obama issued a statement honoring Clinton for "the valiant and historic campaign she has run." Just as presumptive Republican nominee John McCain has done, Obama mentioned the barriers Clinton broke for his own daughters "and women everywhere, who now know that there are no limits to their dreams. And she inspired millions with her strength, courage and unyielding commitment to the cause of working Americans. Our party and our country are stronger because of the work she has done throughout her life, and I'm a better candidate for having had the privilege of competing with her in this campaign."

Many Clinton supporters are convinced that the strength she showed toward the end of the primaries, winning nine of the last 14 contests, including big swing states such as Pennsylvania and Ohio, exposed serious weaknesses in the Obama candidacy among core Democratic voters - seniors, older women, Latinos and blue-collar whites. Some believe having Clinton on the ticket would reel these voters back to the Democratic fold, while others think she should stay off, thinking it would be a losing Democratic campaign.

Obama supporters worry about Clinton's own baggage, including the complications of having such a powerful force and possible rival in the West Wing.

One obvious, well-trod option for Clinton is to return to the Senate, where she could build on her enhanced prominence as a force in the Democratic Party, perhaps with an eye to running again. That would follow the path McCain took after a nasty primary fight with the eventual winner, President Bush, in 2000, and could preserve more options for her should Obama lose.

"She can certainly run an I-told-you-so campaign four years from now, and she might have a strong chance to win the nomination then," said Bruce Schulman, a political historian at Boston University.

Unlike Al Gore in 2000 and John Kerry in 2004, Clinton has lost a primary, not the general election, and so is not perceived "as the one who lost it for the party," said Julian Zelizer, a political historian at Princeton University. "So I think that actually helps her in terms of her future. The party's not going to blame her if things go wrong in November."